stories

Ever find yourself on a mountaintop, musing, "Now how the hell did I get up HERE?" That would be me. I'm having a small surgical procedure in the morning, which apparently caused me to sit back, notice the mountain, and decide it's not a bad place to be. Since it's Morganica Mountain, of course, it's a bit ...odd. Thank you, [...]

Life is something to do when you can't get to sleep. --Fran Lebowitz Oh, c'maaaaaaaaaan! So today, I get this call from Kaiser, can't answer right away because my boss' boss is teaching a class and I'm in the front row. I figure they want to talk about Elmo and my leg, and what's going on with the proposed surgery(ies) [...]

The look he gave me was pure disgust. "Do you expect to put THAT," he spat, pointing to my wheelchair, "Into MY car?" I stared, not quite able (or willing) to understand. "Excuse me?" On Friday night, Sept. 16, 2016, I fractured my left femur just above Elmo, my replacement knee. I lived in a wheelchair, facing hip-high amputation of [...]

BANG!! The crutch crashed down onto Elmo. Ouch. "I'm so SO sorry!" he gasped, taking my hand, "Oh my god I feel so bad! Are you alright?" On Friday night, Sept. 16, 2016, I fractured my left femur just above Elmo, my replacement knee. I lived in a wheelchair, facing hip-high amputation of my left leg, for about two years [...]

Cramming four flights, three states, and two surgical consultations into three days would be a challenge for anyone, but moreso when you do it from a wheelchair. Gets even more challenging when you're also processing some pretty life-changing information, because the folks at University of Utah agreed with Stanford: Elmo-the-knee-replacement, about to be ejected by a nonunion fracture, can most [...]

"I'd propose," said Doc David, "A very different course." Six words. Life-changing words, words that open up a whole new dialogue with Elmo, the knee replacement I'd planned to divorce on July 28. Six words that could cost me my house, a bunch of pain, a chunk of retirement money, oodles of work... but give back the ability to walk. [...]

The pic is a storyboard from an upcoming Will Vinton claymation movie, and it seemed particularly apropos considering what I'm doing this week: I'm on the road for the first time since I started riding the range in a wheelchair. I wouldn't recommend it to the faint-hearted, but (so far) I'm having fun. It's part of the last-ditch effort to find [...]

"Excuse me," I said quietly to the cashier, handing her my receipt, "Would you mind giving this to the next person who needs a meal?" She took it, gazed at me in bewilderment, "But you paid for lunch! Don't you like it?" "It looks great, but I have no way to carry it back to the table," I replied, pointing [...]